Russia reveals its strategy for BRICS cooperation

March 26 2013

Yuri Paniyev

special to RBTH

Moscow views BRICS as one of the top priorities of its foreign policy. Source: Reuters

Russian Foreign Ministry has released an official strategy for Russia’s participation in the BRICS association. The document stresses the need to turn the bloc into a comprehensive institution for daily cooperation on key global issues

The Kremlin and Russian Foreign Ministry have released
an official strategy for Russia’s participation in the BRICS association. The
document stresses the need to turn the bloc into a comprehensive institution
for daily cooperation on key global issues. In particular, Russia is looking
forward to working with other BRICS nations to restructure global financial
institutions.

Russia has
unveiled its strategy of cooperation with the BRICS countries ahead of the
bloc’s summit in Durban, South Africa, which will be held on March 26-27. The
document was made available on the websites of the Kremlin and the Russian
Foreign Ministry. Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ryabkov has stated that the
strategy was approved by President Vladimir Putin back on Feb. 9.

According to the
document, which is entitled “Concept of the Russian Federation’s participation
in BRICS,” Russia wants the bloc to be seen as “a new model of global
relations, which supersedes the old division lines between the East and the
West, or between the North and the South.”

Moscow views BRICS
as one of the top priorities of its foreign policy. Ryabkov says there are two
main reasons for this: the association’s growing clout on the international
arena, and the fact that Russia and the other BRICS nations have many shared
strategic interests on the international arena.

The document lists
Russia’s key objectives, among which the main one is “a transformation of BRICS
from a forum for dialogue […] into a comprehensive mechanism of strategic and
day-to-day cooperation on key issues of the world economy and politics.” As far
as Russia is concerned, BRICS is a non-military bloc, but it can make a
contribution to strengthening international security.

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Other Russian objectives
include facilitating closer cooperation between BRICS and the U.N.,
safeguarding and strengthening the role of the U.N. Security Council, and
preventing the use of the U.N. for legitimizing the policies of regime change
and use of force to resolve conflicts.

“The BRICS
association will continue to strengthen its international reputation and
influence by using soft power — i.e., through economic and social achievements
of its members, as opposed to creating some kind of military alliance,” Ryabkov
said. He added that the BRICS nations already have a common platform that can
be used as a starting point for reforming the global financial and economic
architecture.

More specifically, the focus is on the redistribution of the
quotas and votes in the IMF and the World Bank.

The combined
economic weight of the BRICS countries has been growing rapidly in recent
years. In 2011-2012 the BRICS economies grew by 7.5 percent, compared to the
1.5-percent growth demonstrated by the G-7 countries. That shift in the
relative global weight must be reflected in the international financial
institutions, in the opinion of BRICS nations. The G20 — where Russia is
currently holding the rotating presidency — has accepted such a proposal and it
must now be implemented by 2014.

Asked by RBTH
whether the BRICS nations were preparing to use currencies other than the U.S.
dollar in their mutual trade, Ryabkov said that “abandoning the dollar is not a
realistic prospect at this moment.” He added, however, that the BRICS countries
were already in a position to begin intra-BRICS payments in their own national
currencies.

Another idea being
discussed is to set up a BRICS currency pool, a portion of which could be used
to service mutual trade. In addition, the five countries could increase the
share of each other’s national currencies in the reserves of their central
banks. The more diversified the currency reserves are, the more resilient these
countries will be to volatility on the currency markets.

During the Durban
summit, the BRICS leaders will also discuss proposals to set up a development
bank, a standing business council, and a science and research center. According
to Ryabkov, “it is all up to the five leaders” since the proposals have already
been agreed at the level of experts.

Finally, the
Durban summit will launch the so-called virtual secretariat of the BRICS bloc.

“We are not
artificially stimulating the institutional growth of BRICS,” Ryabkov said. “Our
approach is based on the notion that there are influential international bodies
— such as the G20 or the G8 — which work very effectively without creating an
unwieldy bureaucracy or large secretariats. BRICS can do the same.”